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Childhood——My Mom’s Story
I have always wondered how much my mother's childhood was different from mine. She was born in China in 1960s and grew there. Since both her parents were engineers, she lived in a relatively rich family – her parents made about 250 RMB (Chinese Yuan) every month to feed the whole family, including three kids and her grandma. 250 Yuan RMB is equal to 30 US dollars today. But at that time in China, a regular meal for my mom’s family only cost 1 Yuan or so. The monthly rent for the house they were living in was less than 5 Yuan.
difficult word
wonder 好奇,想知道
engineer 工程师
relatively 相对的;相关的
equal to 等于;相当于
regular meal 一顿饭
monthly rent 房租
妈妈的童年往事
我常常猜想、妈妈的童年和我的相比到底有多么不同呢?她于一九六零年代出生在中国并在那里长大。因为她的爸爸妈妈都是工程师,家庭收入达到每月人民币250元,相对别的家庭来说比较富裕,足可以供养她们兄妹三人和奶奶。虽然250元人民币也就相当于30美元,可是,在那个时候的中国,我妈妈一家人的一顿饭也就花费1元左右,每个月的房租也不过5元钱!
(算一算:你父母的月收入是多少?每个月花在食物、交通、住房的钱总共是多少?这些费用占总收入的百分之几?)
Heilongjiang Province is in the far northern area of China and might be the coldest place in the country.(地图) My mother was born there on a cold winter day. The place was neither her mother nor father’s hometown. Around that time, a big oil field was found there, so both of my mother’s parents were sent there to set up drilling wells. Life there was very tough. They worked and lived in the wild with no buildings or houses around, so the couple and their newborn baby had to live in a tent.(插图:寒冷的冬天,冰雪中,一对年轻夫妇和一个婴儿住在帐篷里)
difficult word
neither…nor…既不……也不……
hometown故乡
oil field 油田
drilling wells 钻油井
tough 艰苦
tent 帐篷
黑龙江省远在中国的东北,而且可能是中国最冷的地方。在一个寒冷的冬天,我的妈妈在那里出生。我的外公和外婆都不是当地人。在那个时期,那一带发现了一个大油田,外公和外婆被派到那儿安装钻油井。那儿的生活条件很艰苦,四周没有建筑和房屋,所以外公外婆和他们刚出生的孩子不得不住在帐篷里。
(黑龙江冬天有多长?最冷的时候温度是多少?)
Not long after my mother was born, her parents had to send her and her older brother to a village in Hebei Province, which is my grandma’s hometown. Their grandparents were very old so they could not take care of them much at all. One time, she went out with her brother to go ice-skating on the surface of a frozen pond. Her brother boarded a small wooden board and wanted to slide across the ice. Since my mother was too small, she could only run behind him. Soon she was getting quite tired, so she stopped and bowed her head down to take a breath. When she looked up, her brother had disappeared! Soon a crowd of people gathered around a hole in the ice. “Your brother fell into a hole!” they yelled.
After hearing this, my mother quickly ran back to her house to tell her family members what happened. When they rushed back to the scene, she found that her brother had already climbed out of the hole with the help of the villagers.
difficult word
village村庄
ice-skating滑冰
surface表面
frozen pond结冰的池塘
yell大声喊
scene场面
(配插图:小男孩在农民的帮助下爬出冰面)
我的妈妈出生后不久,就和哥哥一起被送到河北省的老家和爷爷奶奶同住。爷爷奶奶年纪大了,没有精力很好地照顾他们。有一次,她和哥哥一起到结了冰的池塘去滑冰。哥哥踩在一小片木板上,打算横穿冰面。因为妈妈年纪太小,只能勉强跟在哥哥后面跑。不一会儿,她感到很累了,便停住脚步、弯腰低头喘了口气。当她抬起头时,却发现哥哥不见了!立刻,在冰面的一个窟窿前围了一大群人。“你哥哥掉到洞里去了!”那些人喊道。
妈妈听到后,赶紧跑回家,告诉家人发生的事情。当她和家人赶到池塘边时,发现哥哥已经在几个村民的帮助下爬出了那个冰窟窿!
A few months later, she was sent back to her parents, but her brother had to stay here for a lot longer – the next time they would meet would be four years later! My mother’s last memory about the village was when the bus started to move, she saw her brother riding on a goat chasing the bus. My mother couldn’t stop giggling as she watched him get smaller and smaller, and then disappear.
difficult word
goat chasing骑着山羊追赶
giggling咯咯笑
disappear消失
几个月后,妈妈被送回到父母身边,但哥哥却被留了下来,直到四年后他们才得以重逢!我妈妈对于这个村庄最后的记忆是这样一幅画面:当她所乘坐的公共汽车开始移动的时候,她看见哥哥骑着一只山羊追赶过来。妈妈一直咯咯地笑着,看着哥哥的身影越来越小、直到看不见。
During the Cultural Revolution, my grandparents were moved to Szechwan. My mother was about five years old during this time and was sent to Beijing to live with her aunt’s family. The most unforgettable memory she has from this period is when she took a train back to Szechaun to visit her parents. It was a three day ride on a crowded cabin with nobody she knew accompanying her. There was absolutely no way that a little girl like her would get a seat, so my mother brought a small stool. She sat on that stool for the whole ride and hummed the tunes of all popular songs she knew over and over to let the time lapse. The distance she had to ride was about the same as from New York to Texas!
difficult word
Szechwan四川省
Stool小板凳
hum哼唱
tune曲调
popular流行
lapse流逝
“文化大革命”期间,我的外公和外婆被发配到了四川。刚满五岁的妈妈,被送到北京的姑妈家。这个时期,妈妈最难忘的事情是独自一人坐火车回四川看望父母。在没有一个认识的人陪同的情况下,她要在拥挤的车厢里呆上三天三夜。在那个时代,像她这样的小女孩,是不可能抢到一个座位的,所以她随身带了一个小板凳。她坐在小板凳上,将所有会唱的流行歌曲哼了一遍又一遍,好打发漫长的时间。那段路程,差不多有从纽约到得克萨斯那么远呢!
配简易地图:北京——四川;纽约——得克萨斯
Now my mom was ready to go to kindergarten. This was when her personality really caught people’s attention. Every week, she would go to school for six days. Every two weeks, the teacher gave the kids baths by placing them in a big bowl of warm water one by one. After every five or six students bathed, the teachers got a new bowl of water. The students stood in a line and waited for their turn to bath. My mother just couldn’t bear used water touching her skin. Each time, she counted to see whether or not she was going to get a new bowl of water. If she got the clean water, she behaved really well and waited her turn patiently. However, if she found that she was going to be put into the water that was used already, she would break the rule and jump into the bowl as soon as the teacher changed the water, with her clothes on. (插图:穿着毛线衣裤的小女孩跳进圆形的木制浴盆里,旁边是规规矩矩排着队、满脸惊讶的小朋友们)She didn't even take her clothes off! Still, my mother was satisfied since the teacher couldn’t drag her out! It was way too cold to stand in wet clothes.
difficult word
kindergarten幼儿园
personality个性
catch one’s attention引起别人的注意
bath洗澡
bowl盆,碗
bear忍受
touch接触
count数数
behave表现
patiently耐心
break破坏
satisfy满意
这期间,妈妈开始去幼儿园。她的个性,也是在这个时候引起大人的注意的。每个星期,她要在幼儿园呆6天;每隔两个星期,老师们会在一个大盆里放些热水,挨个儿给孩子们洗澡。每5-6个孩子洗完后,老师们会换一盆干净的水。孩子们按照要求排队等候。我妈妈无法忍受在别人洗过的水里洗澡,所以,她每次都会暗中数数,看是不是能够赶上干净的那盆水。如果能够如愿以偿,她会表现得很耐心、很乖;但是,如果发现她将在别人洗过的水里洗澡,她便会破坏规矩,在老师刚刚换过热水时跳进盆中,连衣服都不脱!
这样做的结果通常令妈妈很满意,因为天气寒冷、老师通常不会把湿淋淋的她从澡盆里揪出来!
At seven years old, my mother went second grade and she did very well academically. She got good test scores and always got rewards at home because of getting better grades than her older brother and younger sister. (插图:小女孩拿着100分的数学和语文卷子给爸爸妈妈看;爸妈欢喜)There are times when my mother made some mistakes and didn't do well on her tests. Her parents were always glad to see that she told them the truth rather than hide it. Under the same circumstances, her brother would lie to avoid any punishments.
My mother was a little bit like a teacher’s pet. When she was having a dispute with another student and they decided to go up to the teacher, the teacher always blamed the other student first. Though I am not sure if this was the right thing to do, my mother took advantage of her teacher’s prejudice.
difficult word
academically学术上
score成绩
reward嘉奖
circumstance环境
lie说谎
avoid避免
punishment惩罚
pet宠物,宠儿
dispute争吵
blame责怪
took advantage of利用
prejudice偏爱
在大约7岁的时候,妈妈升入了2年级,而且成绩非常好。在家里,因为成绩总是比哥哥和妹妹好,她总能得到外公外婆的嘉奖。
当然,妈妈也有在考试中失手的时候。让外公外婆高兴的是,她总是如实相告,从不隐瞒。在同样的情形下,她的哥哥通常会撒个小谎以逃避惩罚。
我的妈妈是老师的宠儿。假如她和别的同学发生冲突、大家决定找老师评理,老师总会先批评另一个同学。虽然很难说这样做是不是合适,但妈妈确确实实利用了老师对她的偏爱呢!
Sometimes, my mother helped her classmates do their homework and they repaid her with little things such as rulers, pencils, pencil cases, and other school supplies. She hardly ever had to buy any of these materials. All of her classmates asked her for help because they all knew that she was the smartest student.
During that time, children had to walk to school and most of them ate their breakfast on the way. My mother always had a loaf of bread that most families couldn’t afford then. For some reason, my mother didn’t really like those loaves of bread. She decided to exchange her bread for her classmates’ homemade cornbread. Both sides were so happy for getting what they really liked! (插图:两个女孩交换食物,小女孩用面包换取玉米饼,两个人均欢天喜地的样子)
difficult word
classmate同学
homework家庭作业
repaid回报
ruler尺子
pencil case文具盒
hardly几乎不
material物品
the smartest最聪明的
a loaf of一条
afford买得起
exchange交换
homemade cornbread自家做的玉米饼
有时候,妈妈会在家庭作业方面帮助同学;同学们会送给她尺子、铅笔、文具盒及其他学习用品表示感谢。妈妈几乎从来不需要购买类似的物品!班上所有的同学都会向她请教,因为她是公认的最聪明的学生。
那段时间里,孩子们都是步行上学,其中大多数都是边走边吃早餐。很多家庭都买不起面包,而我妈妈却每天都能带出来一份。不知为何,妈妈并不喜欢那些面包。她决定用它们换取其他同学自家做的玉米饼。因为彼此都喜欢对方的食物,她和同学们真的是皆大欢喜呢!
Back then, you didn’t just go into a supermarket, pick out the food you like, and pay for it. Since the supply of meat and vegetables was very limited, each family got a few tickets to use to buy food. You have to wait in a long line. On the days before Chinese New Years, she had to wake up at 6:00 a.m. and wait until 8:00 a.m. when the store opened. She was young and short so once the doors were open, everybody squeezed in front of her. She didn’t want to go back home empty-handed because then they would have nothing to eat on Chinese New Year! So she thought as hard as she could. My mother decided to crawl and go underneath everybody’s legs. Before she knew it, she was at the front of the line.
From that moment on, she never came to wait in line early in the morning. She would go there at 8:00 a.m., crawl her way through and then buy the food! Just like she said, there turned out to be absolutely no point in coming early!
When she told me this, I thought it was extremely dangerous. What if somebody had accidentally stepped on her?
difficult words
queeze挤压
empty-handed空手
crawl爬
underneath在下面
absolutely确实
extremely非常
dangerous危险
accidentally突然地
step on踩到
在那个时期,人们根本不可能像我们现在这样在超级市场随意挑选并购买喜欢的食物。那时候,肉和蔬菜都非常稀缺,每个家庭都需要凭票购买。排队的人真多啊!春节前那几天,她必须早上6点起床,一直等到8点钟,商店才开门。因为她的年纪小,个子又矮,每次商店门一打开,所有人都蜂拥而上,将她挡在后面。她不想两手空空地回家,否则过春节时家里就没有吃的啦!苦思冥想之后,她决定从人们的脚下爬过去!很快,她已经站在队伍的前面啦!
从那以后,她再也不愿意起大早去排队了。她会在8点准时到达,爬到队伍前面,买回想要的食物!正如她后来回忆时说的:“根本没有必要提早去!”
当我听到这些时,我觉得她这么做实在太危险了——万一某个人不小心踩到她身上怎么办?!
After a while, my mother went to Hebei with her sister to visit her grandmother. During the first few nights they were there, storms roared outside. They couldn’t even go outside. One night, when my mother and her sister went to the bathroom, the lights suddenly went off. On their way to alarm their family members, the house started shaking fiercely. It was still raining hard outside and the two girls were shivering with fear. My mother told her sister to run outside and wait for them. “Earthquake, earthquake!” she screamed.
All the people in the house got up and started running out. But before my mother left, she wailed “My grandma!” She went to her grandmother’s room and pulled her out of her bed. Just as they ran out of the room, the blank wall in front of them collapsed. (插图:女孩将外婆从床上拉起来,含泪的脸上有恐惧,身后是打碎的器皿、倒塌的家具和墙)
difficult word
storm暴风雨
roar咆哮
bathroom卫生间
light灯光
suddenly突然
alarm告警
shaking fiercely剧烈地抖动
shivering颤抖
fear恐惧,害怕
Earthquake地震
scream尖叫
wail号啕大哭
pull拉
blank空的
collapse坍塌
又过了些日子,我妈妈领着妹妹到河北看望奶奶。刚到的那几天,暴风雨来袭,她们几乎整天都呆在屋子里。一天晚上,当妈妈和她的妹妹上厕所的时候,所有的灯突然都灭了。在她们返回房间的路上,房子忽然剧烈地抖动起来。外面仍在下着暴雨,两个女孩因为恐惧而浑身发抖。妈妈告诉妹妹到屋外等候家人,然后大喊:“地震啦!地震啦!”
屋里的人被惊醒了,纷纷向外跑。妈妈正要离开时,忽然号啕大哭起来:“奶奶啊——”她冲进奶奶的房间,把老人家从床上拉起来。就在她们冲出房子的一瞬间,整个墙坍塌了!
It was definitely not fun living outside. They had no shelter, so they used the logs and branches from the trees that had fallen down to built a small shed. They had no clothing or food so they were just in misery, not knowing what to do. Later on, helicopters flew by and dropped down food and clothing. Some people decided to go back inside to get valuables back but the earthquake kept erupting and some of them got stuck inside. Her family was lucky and got lots of belongings without getting killed inside so they lived a little happier in their little shed. My mother and her sister actually said that they enjoyed living in the shed. They got to sleep on the top of the shed!
After a long time, some villagers were still telling the story about a little girl had saved her grandma seconds before the house collapsing. This happened in July of 1976 and Hebei Province - My mother was in the heart of the place where the biggest recordable earthquake in the history of China was happening that killed about quarter million people and ruined a big city called Tang Shan. (插图:小女孩和两个小伙伴在临时搭建的防震棚顶上快乐地仰望星空)
difficult word
definitely的确
shelter遮蔽物
log木棍
branch树枝
shed小屋
misery痛苦
helicopter直升飞机
valuable值钱的
erupting爆发
stuck困住
belonging东西
enjoy享受
recordable可记录的
quarter million25万
ruin摧毁
住在外面的感觉当然不好玩。没有挡风遮雨的地方,他们只好用木棍和断裂的树枝搭建临时的棚屋。他们的日子很困顿,因为缺衣少食。后来,直升飞机过来了,空投了食物和衣服。很多人决定回屋将值钱的东西取出来,但因为余震不断,有的人被困在了里面。妈妈的家人比较幸运,因为他们取出了很多东西,却没有被困住。妈妈和她的妹妹甚至觉得,睡在棚屋顶上的感觉很快乐呢!
很多年以后,这里的一些村民仍在讲述那个小女孩在房屋倒塌前一秒救出自己奶奶的故事。这件事发生在1976年7月的河北省,我的妈妈刚好在地震的重灾区。这场地震杀死了大约25万人口,并摧毁了一个大城市——唐山。
1.关于唐山大地震的数字
2.世界著名大地震介绍
My mother had a rough life in her early years. At the age when we are playing Barbie, humming Hilary Duff, and sobbing for just getting a bad test score, she was confronting real life and death challenges.
I always wonder now when she recalls this, she does not feel much sadness anymore. It seems that she diluted the bitterness of her past and only chewed the sweetness of what was left over. All in all, I like her childhood stories far more than just regular bedtime stories.
difficult word
Confronting面对
dilute冲淡
bitterness痛苦
chew咀嚼
left over留下来
Annie Guo
2006
我的妈妈拥有一个很艰涩的童年。当我们每天玩芭比娃娃、哼唱Hilary Duff的歌曲、为了一个小小的坏成绩而哭泣时,处在同样年龄的妈妈却在面临生活和死亡的挑战!
我常常猜想,每当回想起这些事情时,她怎么一点也不伤心呢?也许,是她将种种苦涩滤去了、只留下甜蜜的东西去回味吧。
总之,和通常的睡前故事相比,我更喜欢听妈妈讲述她的童年往事!
郭乔
2006年
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